Friday, September 14, 2012

Vintage Print Ads for Now Classic Books

I love to browse and buy old magazines. One of the best things about these decades-old glossies are the advertisements: the snappy tag lines, the tongue-in-cheek ad copy, and the cleverly drawn artwork or unintentionally cheesy photographs. Usually, these ads are for automobiles or kitchen appliances or sportswear. But sometimes, they're for books, such as Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, Francoise Sagan's Bonjour Tristesse, or A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh.

Looking at these advertisements, I like to study not only how the books were promoted (the choice of words and illustration), but I also like to spot the street addresses of the publishing houses to see where they were once located and to imagine what the city and the publishing world were like then. Eleven of these advertisements were highlighted by Flavorwire. Go to this LINK to see vintage print ads for F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, and more.